


Punishing Times

by Tarlan



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M, Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2018-12-30 13:17:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12109545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: He believed he deserved every torment, every blow after his actions caused Glenn's death, until Rick showed him different.





	Punishing Times

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hellkitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellkitty/gifts).



Negan considered Daryl's solitary confinement in a pitch black room, interspersed with daily beatings as a necessary corporal punishment for disrespecting him in front of his people, but worse, Daryl felt he deserved every blow, left with far too much time to think of all the mistakes he had made. Glenn was dead because of him, because he allowed his hot-headed nature to take full rein against Negan when he should have sat still and kept quiet like the others, but Negan had been torturing Rosita, who had loved Abraham. He closed his eyes. He was so much more like Merle than he cared to admit sometimes, and now someone he cared about deeply - more than just a friend, a brother - had paid a high price. So when the chance came to escape he almost didn't take it, and the only thing that burned through the shame and guilt was the remembered look of despair on Rick's face as Negan's men dragged him away and locked him in this tiny, dark room.

Rick no longer had Abraham or Glenn to watch his back, and though the others were more than capable, especially Michonne and Maggie, the very thought of Rick standing alone against a herd of walkers was frightening. He'd already saved Rick once when a walker almost bit him from behind. Daryl had lost so much to this apocalypse and he couldn't bear to lose anyone else, especially not Rick, his friend and brother, and if he could have had his wishes come true, then his lover too. So he took the opportunity to escape, managing to grab the motorbike and head out before anyone could rally against him. He thought of heading straight to Alexandria but that would be the first place Negan's men looked for him. The only other option was Hilltop, and the thought of facing Maggie after what had happened to Glenn filled him with dread. Negan had already dished out his punishment to the group by bludgeoning Abraham to death with his barb-wire wrapped baseball bat, but Glenn's death was all on Daryl, for letting his anger consume him. He considered keeping on riding but Maggie deserved more than cowardice from him. She deserved the chance to dish out her own form of corporal punishment, to beat him bloody with her small fists, and tell him she never wanted to see his face again.

Instead she welcomed him with open arms, letting him sob out his grief on her small shoulder, and it almost broke him where Negan's punishment had failed.

"Weren't your fault," she murmured. "It's all on him. On Negan."

"Wish I could believe that," he mumbled as he pulled away, seeing a reflection of his own tear-filled eyes in hers.

He thought his reunion with Maggie would be the most daunting, but when Rick arrived Daryl hung back, afraid of seeing anger and disappointment in Rick's eyes. He wasn't expecting the emotion crossing Rick's face, an expression of pain and hope, of awe and joy, grief... and love. Daryl still lowered his head just in case he was wrong, and then found himself pulled into Rick's arms, pressed hard against him. He hadn't expected to be forgiven so easily by Maggie and now by Rick, finding himself wrapped in the arms of this family he had found in the middle of an apocalypse.

Later that night he heard a gentle rap on the door of the trailer, opening it to find Rick waiting outside. Daryl moved aside and let him in, closig the door quietly behind him. The silence stretched a moment before Rick turned round, stepping up close to Daryl again and pulling him in hard.

"I thought he'd killed you too." Rick's voice in his ear was unsteady, full of emotions threatening to spill, and before Daryl could even think of an answer he was kissing Rick, falling into the welcome of Rick's arms, of their friendship and something else that could only be described as love.

They tumbled onto the bed, locked in an embrace that broke only to remove the clothes separating them, wanting desperately to feel skin on skin.

Rick paused once they were naked, fingers and eyes tracing the bruises, green and yellow old ones and livid purple new, from the many beatings he had taken at Negan's camp. In turn Daryl traced the scars of bullet and knife wounds scattered across Rick's torso, some years old. The brush of a hand and the spiking pleasure of Rick's touch almost undone him again, and afterwards he laid heavy and content for the first time in years, head pillowed on Rick's heaving chest, listening to his rapid heart beat gradually slow. The warmth of Rick's body and the reassurance of an arm draped over him brought him a sense of peace that had been missing for so long. He knew they should clean up but he didn't want to move, eyelids heavy as sleep beckoned, and Daryl gave into his need to hold onto Rick.

When he awoke hours later he smiled against the warm, slightly sweaty skin pressed under his cheek.

"I screwed up. I got Glenn killed."

Rick sighed, chest expanding and deflating beneath Daryl's head. "You were sick, Daryl. You couldn't have known what he'd do. I'd have done the same if I hadn't been so... traumatized. Only thing we can do now is make him pay - for Glenn, for Abraham, for Olivia and Denise... for everyone he's hurt." Rick paused. "But I can't do it without you," he murmured. "Need you with me... keep me from falling apart."

Daryl hugged him tighter because it was only Rick holding him together right now, surrounded by his acceptance and love. The last few weeks, like the bruises across his body, were still tender and raw but everything had changed with this one night together, leaving him open to even greater loss. Yet he also felt renewed, filled with determination. Daryl had no idea how long either of them would survive in this terrible new world, and as he kissed Rick with growing passion, reaching down between their close-pressed bodies, he knew he would treasure every moment for as long as they both lived.

END  
 


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